Articles posted August 11, 2003

Headlines and features from the Thoroughbred industry

With the Triple Crown heroics of Funny Cide and last weekend's victory by Whitmore's Conn in the grade I Sword Dancer Stakes, Fasig-Tipton officials were hoping the success of New York-breds on the racetrack would spill over into the sales ring.

With trainer Bob Baffert reporting that Vindication's training schedule is just too tight to make the Oct. 25 Breeders' Cup Classic, Powered by Dodge (gr. I), Satish and Anne Sanan's Padua Stables announced the early retirement of the unbeaten 2-year-old champion male of 2002.

Senor Swinger, a prime candidate for Saturday's 63rd La Jolla Handicap, a prep for the Del Mar Derby on Saturday, September 6, turned in a strong half-mile work in 47.20 Monday morning over the Jimmy Durante Turf Course at Del Mar.

West Coast-based jockey Corey Nakatani, who finished second by a head aboard Gary A. Tanaka's Sarafan in the 2002 Arlington Million, will now get a chance to make amends for that defeat with the mount on Charles E. Fipke's Perfect Soul in Saturday's 21st running of the grade I centerpiece of the Chicago Thoroughbred racing season.

A special two-hour "SportsCenter at Saratoga," featuring live coverage of the grade I, $1 million Travers Stakes from Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., will air from 5-7 p.m. (ET) on August 23 on ESPN, the network, the New York Racing Association and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association announced Monday.

Kentucky Derby-winning trainer John Ward has called some of the recent attacks on the embattled New York Racing Association "essentially a political assassination campaign" linked to development of video lottery terminals at racetracks in the state.